1. The vision of the initial creative minority begins to decay.

2. The majority of the civilization's people gradually withdraw their allegiance.

3. Social decay follows.

1. Sports and entertainment received more and more money while the plight of the poor was neglected.

2. Money went to the military rather than public infrastructure.

3. Violence became increasingly prevalent.

4. People's faith in government became undermined, and justly so.

5. Religious roots fragmented and became cause for dissension.

This is a theory of the world as History, world as time, and history as directional. It revolves around the notion of "becoming."

1. It is a philosophy of history. It is a theory of how history should be done, what a careful theory of

what history really is.

2. The central interest is in "High history" - the history of Culture and Civilization. Spengler cites 8

cultures which have existed and disappeared never to return.

3. History is directional. That is there is a logic that describes the Cultures (each as a period of youth,

growth, maturity, decay), and each has a fundamental logic, its Destiny, which it eventually fulfills.

4. Babylon, Egypt, Chinese, Indian, classical Greek/Roman, Arabian, Western (Faustian), Mexican

(Aztec/Mayan). No Incan? No Israel?